Election in Tunisia: choosing a candidate online

Many online tools help Tunisian citizens choose their candidate for the October 23 elections. ‘Occupy’ protests continue across the globe.
And a British graphic artist pays homage to Tintin in a minimalist cartoon.

Election in Tunisia: choosing a candidate online

The campaign for the Constituent Assembly vote, set for October 23 is in full swing in Tunisia. But for the first free elections in the country, it is difficult to choose between the hundreds of parties and the thousands of candidates in the running. Many online tools have appeared to help voters to get to know the new players in local political life.

‘The Tunisian Political Party Portal’ offers an online classification of the various parties taking part in the elections, according to the parties they represent. A classification also offered on the site ‘Fhimt.com’, where the 109 parties in the running are clearly identified with colour coding.

Several blogs attempt to decipher the parties’ programmes and in so doing help voters choose objectively. This is the case in particular for the ‘Tunisian Political Observatory’, an independent site launched in September, aiming to scrutinise the proposals and communication, made by organisations constituting the country’s new political sphere.

And with the same aim of helping voters get to know candidates a little better, the ‘Tunisia Talks’ initiative was set up to organise interactive debates regarding the vote, on YouTube. Citizens can fire questions at political figures who answer in videos then diffused on a channel created for this reason, on the share site.

Finally various tools have also been designed to compare the parties’ programmes with each other based on proposals, or particularly important themes, in net user’s opinions. Whether on Ajidoo or Bosala.org, voters are offered guides to help find the best candidate for them.

Occupy protests continue across the globe

From Frankfurt to Tokyo and stopping off in Mexico City, the Occupy movement has spread to hundreds of cities worldwide. Tens of thousands of protesters gathered together on Saturday in front of symbolic places, such as the London stock exchange to denounce world finance excesses. Mobilisation which relied heavily on the net and social networks.

The organisers of these protests were invited to take part in a virtual general meeting to pool their ideas, and coordinate their activities more efficiently.

And on this blog created in the US where the movement has been expanding ever since its launch a month ago, net users’ testimonies are flooding in. All say they make up the 99% of people who are victims of a financial system which they feel, is easy on the rich, and tough on the poor.

Some of the privileged few launched a blog to express support with the Occupy protesters. Around one hundred left a message, most, calling for the public authorities to increase their taxes, in solidarity with the disadvantaged members of the population.

And to denounce the inequality activists are calling on this site for net users to print statistics on bank notes, regarding for example, the distribution of wealth in the US, or the average salary of an office worker compared with that of a big boss.

Occupy Sesame Street

On the fringes of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement another group has appeared online: ‘Occupy Sesame Street’ in reference to the famous children’s TV show. Whether on blogs or on social networks, net users have been having fun, using snaps taken during protests in Manhattan’s financial district. They have inserted characters, from the hit TV show, as a zany tribute to the New York ‘Occupy’ protesters.

Now trending on social networks

‘#Halfbeard’, is currently one of the most used expressions on social networks, ever since Scooter Braun, the agent of young Canadian singer, Justin Bieber, decided to shave just half of his face as seen on several pictures posted online. A bizarre idea which is the result of a bet lost by Braun and which is generating many comments from net users, who gently poke fun at this rather strange style.

Video of the day

London graphic artist, James Curran is a fan of the cartoon, Tintin and to mark the cinema release of the famous journalist’s adventures, he has created this fake title sequence, which he has posted online. Using only minimalist shapes, the cartoon is brimming with references from the 24 Tintin albums, and should delight all fans of the 9th art.